DHARMSALA, India (AFP) -
Miss Tibet Tashi Yangchen has been expelled from the Miss
Tourism World beauty pageant in Zimbabwe due to pressure
from China, an official said.

Yangchen, who arrived in Harare February 13, was told by
the organisers that the Chinese embassy there had objected
to her taking part in the February 26 event, according to
Ngawang Samdup, spokesperson of the Miss Tibet pageant.

"It is unfortunate that politics dictates events of young
women and their aspirations," Samdup told AFP on Saturday.

According to the Tibetan official, Taiwan is represented
in the pageant as Chinese Taipei while Hong Kong is named
as a representative of China.

Miss Tourism World has been running for 20 years with 72
countries taking part in the 2005 event.

China occupied Tibet in 1950. The Dalai Lama fled to
India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese
rule and now lives in exile in the northern hill resort
of Dharamsala.